Official Symbols - Faunal Emblems

Wedge-tailed Eagle

The Wedge-tailed Eagle, Aquila audax, with an average wingspan
of two and a half metres is Australia's largest raptor.

This bird is clearly recognisable for its huge broad wings
and the long wedge-shaped tail. The general colour is dark brown with
a chestnut hind neck. Their legs are covered in feathers right down
to the feet. Its hooked beak and strong talons clearly mark the Wedge-tailed
Eagle as a bird of prey. They are found throughout Australia. In the
Northern Territory they are more common in the arid centre than on the
coastal plains of the north.

Eagles form long-lasting pairs which occupy a nesting
and breeding territory and defend it against intruders. At sunrise they
locate most of the carrion that forms an important part of their diet.
Later on, as the sun heats up the air close to the ground, convection
currents produce strong updrafts known as thermals on which the Wedge-tailed
Eagle soar and glide up to 2000 metres high for much of the middle of
the day. It is believed that this high aerial activity acts as a display
to warn other eagles of the occupation of a territory.

Before man came to Australia it is probable that the Wedge-tailed
Eagles ate a whole range of smaller mammals along with other birds and
reptiles which are an important dietary item in arid areas. Since man's
arrival, fires, sheep and cattle have destroyed the ground cover in
which many of the smaller mammals lived.

Man also introduced the rabbit on which eagles now subsist
for a large part of their range. It is also probable that the increased
watering points provided by agriculture have led to an increase in kangaroo
numbers, a further food source for eagles.

Wedge-tailed Eagles nest in the highest trees and build
large platform-like nests out of sticks. These nests may be reused from
year to year, after being given a coating of fresh leaves.

Two eggs are laid around June-July, but usually only one
of the young survives and is fledged when it is 80 to 90 days old. Both
sexes share the incubation and feeding of the young. The surviving young
wander for two to three years before establishing their own territory.
They attain full adult plumage when around four years old. Under drought
conditions eagles may not breed for several years in succession.

Red Kangaroo

The Red Kangaroo, Macropus rufus, is the embodiment of most
people's concepts of our unique fauna. It is the largest extant marsupial
with adult males standing more than two metres tall and weighing up
to 75 kilograms, all this for an animal that weighs only 800 milligrams
at birth.

Their long thin limbs give Red Kangaroos the mobility
to travel large distances under adverse conditions. Most males are a
rusty-brown and females a smokey-grey and both have paler under-surfaces.
They have conspicuous white marks on the sides of their muzzles with
a black line through them. Their thick pale fur allows these kangaroos
to reflect a great deal of radiated heat.

Despite the harshness of their environment Red Kangaroos
have one of the widest distributions of any of the macropods. They are
found throughout inland Australia wherever the annual rainfall is less
than 375 millimetres, an area of perhaps five million square kilometres.

During periods of drought they retreat to the watercourses
and to open grassy depressions on the plains where green feed is more
readily available. As these areas become restricted it is then that
large congregations of several hundred kangaroos may occur. These however
are a matter of attraction to a limited resource and, except for mother-offspring
interactions, there is little social structure.

These open areas have few shade trees or shrubs under
which the animals can rest during the heat of the day. Therefore when
good seasons come back around the Kangaroos move to the Mulga tree areas
where both food and shade are readily available.

It is only under these good conditions that breeding can
occur. Females may have one young at foot, one in the pouch and one
dormant embryo. During droughts breeding is usually reserved to conserve
available food.